


When Is A Door Not A Door?

by Reddd



Series: josh is a meme, tyler is catching on [1]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Cute, Desk, Fluff, M/M, Memes, Writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 00:25:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8468740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reddd/pseuds/Reddd
Summary: Josh got bored and covered a desk in memes and a single joke. Tyler found the desk and probably set in motion a really cliched romance.





	

**Author's Note:**

> idek okay i'm tired and i wrote this and it's a different style and i just got bored at the end and made it humorous kind of i dont know but i hope you enjoy!!

It started out as a harmless pastime, Josh didn't actually expect anyone to reply to his messages, nor to actually gain something from his own idiocy. 

It started at the desk nestled into the back left corner of the history room.

\--

Josh twirled his pencil and sighed, his gaze flicking up every ten seconds to check the clock perched above the whiteboard. Time almost seemed to be going in reverse, but Josh still liked to torture himself by staring at the seemingly frozen clock hands. 

His gaze fell to the stick of graphite in his hand, and he began to contemplate how pencils are made. But then he was struck with an idea:  
Pencils leave marks.  
Josh can write.

Josh smirked to himself as he started drawing and writing memes all over the table, hiding his masterpieces from the teacher when she walked by, tapping the desks of the other students like Josh who weren't doing what they were supposed to.

When the bell finally rang to dismiss the class, a corner of the table was filled in with crude drawings of memes, and a moderately sized but reasonably well-drawn pepe sat in the centre of the table.

Josh left the room, a smug swagger in his strides and a cheeky grin on his face. 

\--

Josh told himself he'd stop when half of the table was covered.

He didn't.

\--

Josh started looking up more memes to draw on the wood (plastic?).

There was a lot more memes than he had expected.

\--

Tyler avoided looking at the clock in the history room, instead focusing on the countless memes littering the surface of the table. His head spun with all the recreations of pepe, kittens, sad bears, even doge, and he struggled to read some of the written memes. There were so many scattered around that they overlapped each other, making it incredibly difficult to read.

'boi'

'much history, such learn, very past, wow'

'hey there it's your host k-k-kille-'

'one do- -mply walk into history class'

'NOT BAD' with the accompanying face next to it. 

There was also multiple different drawn memes, some of which were unrecognisable but some had incredible amounts of care placed into them. They were precisely drawn, almost as if they were traced, and frankly, Tyler had no idea how to feel. 

He had watched them accumulating over the course of two weeks, much to his enjoyment. More seemed to appear every week, and Tyler had found himself looking forward to his history classes, but Tyler had told himself it was just curiosity over which memes would appear next.

Naturally, he was surprised when he found a joke instead of a meme written at the bottom of the table. He was even more surprised when he found himself replying to it, scribbling in a black pen that was running out of ink.

The bell rang and he left the class in a hurry, wanting to slip into the music room before anybody saw him. He didn't want to deal with people, and he needed to think.

The desk barely left his thoughts the entire day.

\--

Josh stared at the bottom of his desk in his history class, bewildered. He didn't remember replying to his own joke, obviously, he would never sink to the level where he had to be his own friend. He had friends, just... not in his class. Or in any of his classes. Or in the school.

But that's not the point, and Josh doesn't like to think about it. 

The point is that a mysterious reply appeared in response to his joke, and Josh was not okay with that. Especially since it was the wrong answer.

He pouted as he scrawled next to the anonymous message, before turning his attention to the desk, trying to find a reasonably clear space to draw on. He found one, then started slowly tracing the words Zooboo in a cool font that he memorised specifically for that meme.

He finished before the bell rang, and he left with his head slightly swimming.

\--

Tyler was frustrated, but also really confused and kind of amused. He had gotten a reply back from the mystical desk, but it was not what he was expecting.

'when is a door not a door'

'When it's taken off its hinges'

'no u frickin plank its when its ajar'

Tyler scratched a reply into the desk with his scissors, since his pen finally ran out of ink, before inspecting the fresh memes that appeared in his absence. 

He left the history classroom that day with someone to his right bugging him, and a brain full of the outlines of internet memes.

\--

The next few days was a repeat of the last, save for new memes and a steady exchange of written messages that started to take over the desk almost as much as the memes.

\--

'How was I meant to know that? I don't know bad jokes'

'if tht was supposed to b insulting it wasnt'

\--

'It wasn't meant to be, but your English certainly is'

\--

'u sound like an ass'

\--

Tyler scoffed, eyeing the writing on the desk, before shrugging and scribbling a reply, trying and failing to focus on the lesson. The weird desk graffiti-artist was starting to wiggle their way into his brain, attempting to demand his attention whenever he could give it. He wasn't even sure who this was, but he wasn't about to find out. 

\--

'Close enough to the truth'

-

Josh raised an eyebrow when he located the latest message from his anonymous writer. 'Close enough to the truth'? What did that mean? 

Josh didn't think much of it, instead thinking about what to write. He snickered and jotted down the first thing that came to his head.

\--

'oky ill take that as u feel like an ass too'

\--

'No stop it oh my god'

\--

'u kinda seem cool but ur still an ass'

\--

'I'm glad?'

Tyler hesitated, before writing another line.

'You too'

\--

'ill have u know im not an ass like you'

\--

'And how can I be sure of that?'

\--

'u can b sure of it if u meet me bhind the auditorium tomorrow after school ;)'

\--

Tyler stared at the desk, his thoughts spiralling everywhere and his heart thumping. This was not what was meant to happen, this was not what he had planned, he didn't even want to talk to his own brother half the time why did he think it was a good idea to write to a random stranger whom he now had to MEET behind a big building out of sight and oh god oh god oh go-

The bell blared and Tyler bolted from the room, not realising that he never wrote back to the stranger.

\--

Josh didn't know how to feel. He never got a message back, but then again, the other person might not have even read what he wrote yet. 

Which is unlikely, because Josh knew that after he had his history lesson second period on a Wednesday, the stranger had it sometime the same day, because Josh had it first period the next day and a new response was always waiting for him. 

Josh thought up so many ideas, scheming about why the stranger didn't reply, but none of them really made sense. 

But, Josh wrote the message, and now he has to stick to his own word, if only but for some feeble hope that still flickered in his chest.

Maybe his stranger read it and was going to turn up, but forgot to reply. Maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

\--

It was raining. Josh's hair, normally vibrant in its colourful glory, stuck sodden and dull to his forehead. He fluffed it up to help it get some volume back, but its colour didn't brighten. But his hair was the least of his concern.

He loitered behind the auditorium after school on a Thursday, his hands in his pockets, waiting to see if his mysterious desk stranger turned up, and so far, it seemed doubtful. 

But still he stood, pondering about what he would do when he finally meets his... his what? His desk partner? Anonymous conferrer? Fellow meme lover? Friend?

Josh didn't know what to call this person, or what to expect, but he certain did not expect the gentle tap on his shoulder to be Tyler Joseph, let alone a Tyler Joseph with a small, wary smile pulling at his lips.

Josh blinked and stared. No way was Tyler Joseph, the shadow that slinks along the walls and hides in the cracks between bricks, the person that barely uttered a word to anyone but his friend Jenna, the person that was speaking to him through a desk. There was no way.

But this must've been the only way, as Tyler was opening his mouth to speak, a single raindrop rolling down his cheek to drip into his open mouth. He pulled a face, then Josh heard his voice, and he had to lean against the nearest wall to keep from, heaven forbid, swooning.

"Hi, uh... A-are you... Are you desk-meme guy...?"

Josh burst into laughter, doubling over. Out of all the greetings, 'desk-meme guy' was the best name he'd ever been called, and he'd been called a lot of names in all his years of living. 

"Oh my god, I love you already." Shit Josh did not mean to say that reverse reverse abort mission oh god. "I mean, not what I meant, I just meant that you're hot- wait no I mean you're funny and it's cold out here but you're not cold you're ho- fuck um hi yeah I'm desk-meme guy," Josh finished lamely, hanging his head as his cheeks burned. Tyler was laughing at him, Tyler was laughing so hard and Josh had no idea a laugh could sound so pleasant and musical, or even so adorable, but somehow Tyler was making Josh feel emotions he'd never even read about before and he was not prepared for this at all.

"Dude, if it helps, you're hot too but I'm actually really cold, so uh," Tyler glanced around, demeanour flighty. "Could we like, uh, exchange numbers? I'm meant to be getting back home..." Tyler was fidgeting and Josh wanted to grab him and hold him and tell him not to be nervous and- okay yeah Josh stop.

"Sure! I, uh, yeah, I mean, yeah," Josh said, fumbling with his phone as he fished it out of his pocket. He ignored Tyler's giggle- his heart didn't ignore it and it decided to leap into Josh's mouth just for the fun of it- and handed Tyler his phone. "Can you, uh, put your... y'know, thing in and then..." 

Tyler raised his eyebrows. "My thing in?" he asked, a smirk stretching his lips.

Josh screeched, and covered his mouth, banging his head on the wall. "Not what I meant!" 

Tyler cackled, but typed his number in and handed Josh his phone back, calling back to Josh as he strode away. 

"Nice to meet you, hot desk-meme guy. You made me feel a little less cold." 

When Tyler was gone, Josh let out another screech, this time clutching his chest and blushing.

\--

'Hey there desk-meme guy'

Josh was cradling his phone in anticipation, even though he knew Tyler probably wouldn't text him today, and he was just about to try to convince himself for the eighteenth time that he should put the phone down when it buzzed in his hands and he screamed.

'sup lil frizzle'

WHAT OH MY GOD JOSH WHAT DID YOU EVEN JUST DO-

'Frizzle? Cute'

Josh simply stared at the phone. 

'i just made a rly awkwrd impression and all u do is agree that ur cute'

'No I was talking about the fact that you think that's an acceptable nickname'

'Speaking of which, my actual name is Tyler'

Josh regretted his entire life.

'i dont actually think that it jst kinda happened i mean ur hot so it just kinda hAPPeneD'

'?? How does that just happen? Also thanks'

Josh was about to run away from his phone, hyperventilating, when it buzzed again with another text from Tyler. 

'Either way though, it was cute and you're cute so'

Josh screamed again and his brother yelled at him to shut up. He hastily typed out the first thing that came to mind. 

'sAys you'

Josh wanted to scream again. 

Somewhere, miles away, Tyler felt the same way. His heart felt like it was bursting, and he was happier than he had been in quite a while. He was rapid-texting Jenna at the same time, updating her constantly because she fed off of relationships and drama like a ginger feeds on souls. Not really, but still.

'Hey, tomorrow's Friday. The day after is a Saturday. Want to hang out?'

'dude that was the awkwardest way u couldve asked that but hell yeah'

'It's a date then'

Josh and Tyler simultaneously screamed.

'yeS'

'see u then babe ;)'

'See you ;^)'

'never use a nose again'

'Sorry'

A moment later, Josh's phone buzzed again. 

':^('

If Josh had to pick a precise moment he fell for Tyler, it would have to be then.


End file.
